In December 2009, with a “negligent
homicide” conviction, the Karabulak City Court in Ingushetia sentenced the gunman
to two years in a low-security prison settlement for the shooting. The family
appealed to the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, asking that the case be
reinvestigated to correct omissions
and flaws in the initial probe. Instead, Ingushetia’s Supreme Court
replaced the gunman’s sentence today with a two-year “restriction of freedom”
term. Neither the killer nor Yevloyev’s family were present in court today.

“It is outrageous that the killer of Magomed Yevloyev has
been freed from jail,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “With today’s ruling, the
Supreme Court of Ingushetia is fueling impunity
for those who kill journalists—an endemic problem for Russia. We call
on Russia’s
Supreme Court to reverse this dangerous decision.”

The “restriction of freedom” provision is a relatively new penalty
in the Russian criminal code; Article 53 of
the penalties was amended on December 27, 2009, and came into force on January
10. According to the provision, the convicted are given a curfew after which
they must not leave their home; are forbidden to leave town; are banned from
attending mass gatherings; and are not allowed to change their address and work
place without permission from the penitentiary service in their place of
residence.

The 37-year-old Yevloyev was a well-known critic of the
policies of then-Ingushetia President Murat Zyazikov and his government. Through
his Web site, Ingushetiya (which was forced to change domain several times
after politicized courts ordered that it be shut down), Yevloyev exposed high-level
regional corruption.

On August 31, 2008, guards of then-Ingushetia Interior
Minister Musa Medov arrested the journalist without a warrant shortly after his
Moscow-Ingushetia flight landed at Magas airport. Yevloyev was on the same
flight as President Zyazikov and the two had reportedly argued aboard the
plane. On the way to Ingushetia’s largest city, Nazran, one of the arresting
officers, Minister Medov’s nephew Ibragim Yevloyev shot and killed the
publisher.

Within hours of the killing, Ingushetia and Moscow authorities sided with the shooter’s
account, and declared that the publisher had been killed accidentally after he
tried to seize a gun from one of three officers.

Case documents obtained by CPJ indicate that investigators
interviewed the gunman the day of the shooting. In his statement, Ibragim
Yevloyev said the journalist suddenly struggled with another officer, then
abruptly leaned to the side and hit his gun, which accidentally fired. A
forensic analysis dated September 15, 2008, showed the journalist had been shot
at point-blank range in his temple.

Minister Medov told investigators that his nephew and the
other two unidentified officers had been ordered by the Interior Ministry to
leave the region, the case records show.

Ibragim Yevloyev, who was reassigned to Moscow, did not attend any of the court
proceedings on his negligent homicide charge. The other two officers present at
the crime scene were questioned only from behind a closed door, their
identities kept secret. According to the lawyers for Yakhya Yevloyev, the
publisher’s father and a key plaintiff in the case, the two gave conflicting
accounts.

Several months after the killing, an Interior Ministry
investigator acknowledged in a letter to the new Ingushetia president,
Yunus-bek Yevkurov, that he had signed the arrest warrant for Magomed Yevloyev after
the journalist had already been detained and shot, the business daily Kommersant
reported in February 2009. This information—which points to an official
cover-up—has had no follow-up.

“This court decision constitutes full rehabilitation for my
son’s killer,” Yakhya Yevloyev told CPJ today. “We find it absurd that he is
allowed to move freely.” He added that today’s ruling leaves unclear the
mechanism through which Ibragim Yevloyev’s compliance with the new verdict will
be ensured.

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